Car sales were a major source of growth in 2012 and are expected
to finish the year +13 percent compared with 2011. But the
momentum can't last and will pretty much evaporate in 2013,
Calculated Risk's Bill McBride says, citing new forecasts from
Edmunds. Here's the chart:

It would take 10 years for Spain and France, with annual
inflation 2% lower than that of their competitors, to regain
their competitiveness, Sinn writes. But there's hope: Ten years
ago, Germany "was like France is today – the sick man of Europe."
Finally succumbing to economic realities, Gerhard Schroeder
decided in 2003 to cut second-tier unemployment insurance, "thus
paving the way for the creation of a low-wage sector, in turn
reducing the rate of inflation."

If the muted U.S. recovery is any lesson, the Bank of Japan's
plans to vastly increase asset purchases will not address that
country's root problems. "The last thing that the Japanese
economy needs at this point is backsliding on structural
reforms," he writes. "Yet, by forcing the BOJ to follow in the
misdirected footsteps of the Fed and the ECB, that is precisely
the risk that Abe and Japan are facing."